Dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1) plays an important role in mitochondrial fission at steady state and during apoptosis. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we demonstrate that in healthy cells, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-DRP1 recycles between the cytoplasm and mitochondria with a half-time of 50 s. Strikingly, during apoptotic cell death, YFP-DRP1 undergoes a transition from...

Exendin-4, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, demonstrated cytoprotective actions beyond glycemic control in recent studies. The aims of the present study were to investigate the effects of exendin-4 on high glucose (HG)-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis and the possible mechanisms. Rat cardiomyocytes were divided into 3 groups: normal glucose group (NG group), HG group and HG +exendin-4...

p53-mediated apoptosis in baby rat kidney (BRK) cell lines transformed by EIA and p53(vaIl35) requires a transcriptionally functional p53. Coexpression of the El B 19K protein in BRK cell lines transformed by EIA and p53(vaIl35) rescues cells from p53-mediated apoptosis, and this is paralleled by the absence of both lamin and poly(ADP-nbose) polymerase cleavage. Therefore, the role of interleuk...

We report that transfection of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) cDNA in human breast cancer cell lines expressing either mutant p53 (T47D) or wild-type p53 (MCF-7) induces apoptosis. IGFBP-3 also increases the ratio of pro-apoptotic to anti-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family. In MCF-7, an increase in Bad and Bax protein expression and a decrease in Bcl-x(L) protein and ...

Angiogenic growth factors play important roles in angiogenic responses, such as vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in response to hypoxia. A novel angiogenic growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), has been reported to inhibit endothelial cell death. However, its molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. Thus, we studied (1) the effects of HGF on hypoxia-induced endothelial apoptosis and (2...

Because high D-glucose significantly stimulates endothelial cell death, we examined the molecular mechanisms of high D-glucose-induced endothelial apoptosis. Treatment of human aortic endothelial cells with high D-glucose (25 mmol/l), but not mannitol and L-glucose, resulted in a significant decrease in cell number and a significant increase in apoptotic cells as compared with a physiological c...

The multidomain proapoptotic protein Bax of the Bcl-2 family is a central regulator for controlling the release of apoptogenic factors from mitochondria. Recent evidence suggests that the Bax-associating protein MOAP-1 may act as an effector for promoting Bax function in mitochondria. Here, we report that MOAP-1 protein is rapidly up-regulated by multiple apoptotic stimuli in mammalian cells. M...

To further characterize MPP(+)-induced cell death and to explore the role of Bcl-2-related proteins in this death paradigm, we utilized a mesencephalon-derived dopaminergic neuronal cell line (MN9D) stably transfected with human bcl-2 (MN9D/Bcl-2), its C-terminal deletion mutant (MN9D/Bcl-2Delta22), murine bax (MN9D/Bax), or a control vector (MN9D/Neo). As determined by electron microscopy and ...

Sympathetic premotor neurons for the maintenance of vasomotor tone are located in rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM). We demonstrated previously that overproduction of nitric oxide (NO) by inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in RVLM, leading to caspase 3-dependent apoptotic cell death, plays a pivotal role in cardiovascular depression during endotoxemia induced by intravenous administration of Esche...